Images of epic landscapes attract South Americans to New Zealand

28 Mar 2018

New Zealand tourist operators looking to attract Argentinian and Brazilian visitors are best to use promotional images capturing New Zealand’s epic landscapes and water activities on our lakes, rivers, and beaches.

These are the results of Tourism New Zealand’s extensive image testing in South America, involving 900 people who are ‘actively considering’ a trip to New Zealand.

“We tested 160 images showcasing New Zealand activities and experiences with 450 Brazilian and 450 Argentinean ‘active considerers’, as part of our work to improve the way industry can appeal to different international visitor markets,” says Bjoern Spreitzer, General Manager, Europe and Americas.

“The Argentinean ‘active considerers’ found images of swimming/bathing, snow and star gazing to be appealing while the Brazilian ‘active considerers’ were more interested in images of natural hot pools and kayaking with epic landscapes in the background. The research also revealed the opportunity for our marketing efforts to include more images of glow worm caves, fjords, wineries, glaciers, and Hobbiton as these are activities that our audience is most interested in and would like to know more about.”

The testing revealed that images of New Zealand’s high adrenaline, adventure activities are more appealing to younger audience groups than the whole Argentinean and Brazilian market in general.

Almost 38,000 visitors from Argentina and Brazil travelled to New Zealand in the year to January 2018 (up 28% on the year prior). Arrivals from these countries have been increasing progressively since 2015 when Air New Zealand launched its direct route from Buenos Aires to Auckland.

“Brazil has returned to economic growth resulting in a middle class wishing to travel overseas for leisure and education. Travellers from both Brazil and Argentina tend to stay for a considerable length of time and travel around different regions,” says Mr Spreitzer.

Tourism New Zealand has an office in São Paulo, Brazil and co-shares an office with Air New Zealand in Argentina.